Blog for Presbyterian Church Leaders

Religion in education

Lisa Wells recently shared this story at the the Australian Association of Mission Studies Conference. The story is of a Hamilton church which is re-imagining its future, and making that future happen.

I presented the following paper at the Australian Association of Mission Studies Conference in July 2017. The conference theme was: “Imagining Home: Understanding, Reconciling and Engaging with God’s Stories Together” and my presentation was of a church PressGo had worked with and helped with funding and its missional journey.

Introduction

When church is at its best it is a vital community of believers, called out by God, under the authority of Jesus Christ. When it is at its worst it is a social club or a historical preservation society. To paraphrase Longfellow’s poem “That Little Girl” – “when [church] is good it is very, very good, and when [it’s] bad it is horrid.” Sometimes we even make church in our own image…

Most of the churches I work with in my role of Mission Catalyst within the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand are somewhere between good and bad…

Roxy is the chaplain at St. Cuthbert’s college in central Auckland. It’s her first call, and not at all where she was expecting to be when she set out on her internship.

Last week I took a mid-week chapel service for a group of senior school girls. I began by introducing them to the book of psalms as a collection of songs and prayers that reflect the people of Israel’s responses to the journey of life and faith. Some of them are raw, and some polished. Some are personal and some are communal. Continue reading →

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